The Illini Hockey Club has won in every situation this season – blowout, come-from-behind and now a shootout as well. The two wins this weekend against Iowa State showed that no matter what gets thrown at it, the team somehow comes out on top.

If the defense plays badly, the offense steps up. If the offense is flat, goaltending bails them out.

This isn’t the same team that lost to Div. II Michigan 4-3 Oct. 15.

“I think (how we win) speaks volumes for the character on this team,” said Illinois head coach Chad Cassel. “We don’t get rattled, whether we are behind going into the third, up by a couple goals or tied – we just keep battling.”

Illinois defeated Iowa State decisively Saturday night 4-2 after winning the night before in a shootout. The two wins complete the season sweep of the Cyclones, and the Illini are now unbeaten in their last seven games.

Friday night, the Illini out-shot the Cyclones in the first, but couldn’t light the lamp. The Cyclones took full advantage and struck suddenly in the first 27 seconds of the second period.

Illinois tied the game and later took the lead in the third, but it was short-lived. The Cyclones thundered back to send the game into overtime.

Cassel said the fact that the Illini gave up the lead and needed overtime was disappointing when they could have put the Cyclones away earlier.

“We had opportunities to pull away a little bit, and we didn’t,” he said. “You like to come out with wins in regulation.”

After a scoreless overtime period, the Illini had out-shot the Cyclones 46-29, but the most important shot of the night went to junior forward Steve Krates.

“I just told myself I was going to do my move no matter what the goalie does and did it,” Krates said. “I didn’t pay attention to the goalie or anything – just went in and hoped I would score, and it went in.”

On the flip side, sophomore goaltender Mike DeGeorge said he was confident heading into the shootout.

“You always have to think like you’ll never be scored on, and those two goals were so close,” DeGeorge said. “I was right on top of them, and they both barely went over the line. You feel like you let down the team after letting in a goal like that, but the guys were right there to pick me back up.”

Illinois didn’t need shootout to decide the game Saturday. It was over in the first period.

After a mere 17 seconds, Illinois was on the board when senior forward Brett Duncan blew one past sophomore goaltender Trent Baker. Illinois added two more to end the period with a three-goal lead.

Krates said the Cyclones just ran out of gas.

“They were running two or three lines all week while we were running all four,” he said after the game. “I think it showed tonight.”

The Cyclones changed goaltenders and tactics in the second period, taking cheap shots at the Illini. But Illinois was able to hold the lead until the end of the game despite some breakdowns defensively, which Cassel said needs to be improved upon.

“All weekend really we would get the momentum then there wasn’t much consistency once we had it,” he said. “Everyone was making poor decisions with the puck, coughing it up in bad areas, undisciplined at times and we have to improve on that.”

However, the Illini were able to win in spite of themselves, and Cassel said it shows the team has the ability and the potential to beat any team in the country if the choose to play 60 minutes of hard-fought hockey.

“We knew we had to come out and play hard today with more intensity than the weekend before,” Krates said. “It shows a lot about our team to come out the way we did two weekends in a row.”